SYDNEY — Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia announced Thursday that she was abandoning her government’s controversial plans to ship asylum seekers to Malaysia as part of a refugee swap deal — a humiliating about-face for the beleaguered leader tha

An English backpacker on a tourist visa, Australians straight from high school and overseas students are among hundreds of casual workers earning up to $450 a day as 'officers' in immigration detention centres.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told the media that vacant employment positions - particualrly in the lucrative mining and resources sector - should be filled by Australian workers rather than imported skilled labour, ahead of the national jobs forum in Canberra commencing Friday 7 October.